Quotations
(1) Mercury
This is the planet close to the sun and also the smallest of them. The temperature is insanely high facing the Sun and surprisingly cold on the dark side. There is deemed to be pretty much zero chance of life here being so close to the sun. The planet has no moons.
(2) Venus
This is our twin in terms of size and also being close to the Earth, it is only a little bit smaller than the Earth. However it had a very different fate to earth when it comes to life, and conditions near the surface would be impossible for life, you'd be crushed by the pressure and the temperature is really high, and the chemicals are rather nasty too. Venus has no moons.
(3) Earth
Our planet, the blue planet, the one of which there are now many iconic photographs taken from space showing just how much of the planet is covered in deep blue waters. The planet has one moon, and as you'll know it is a particularly large moon. The first planet to have a moon (in terms of distance from the Sun).
(4) Mars
This is a lot smaller and the last of the rocky planets close to the Sun. It is thought that there is a good chance there was life there in the past due to evidence of liquid water flowing on the surface of the planet, although whether there is life clinging on today somewhere under the surface is much debated. It has two tiny moons though these are little more than rocks really.
(5) Jupiter
This is the largest of the planets and a gas giant. It is quite useful in some respects in terms of having a strong gravity and therefore perhaps shielding the earth from some impacts. It has a giant red spot, a storm that has raged for centuries.
(6) Saturn
This is famous for its iconic rings, if you look at Saturn through a telescope and see the rings is really is quite amazing how that little dot in the sky is turned into this pearly white marble sized object with rings through a telescope.
(7) Uranus
Smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, but still quite large. Temperatures are pretty cold this far away from the Sun.
(8) Neptune
The last of the four gas giants, and the smallest of them too, although it is only marginally smaller then Uranus. Like all the gas giants it has a lot of moons, 13 in this case compared to 27 for Uranus, 52 for Saturn and 49 for Jupiter at the time of writing.
